Launch Pad

John Battelle, 45, is an entrepreneur, journalist, professor, and author who has founded or co-founded scores of online, conference, magazine, and other media businesses.

In addition to his work at Federated Media, one of the largest media companies on the Internet, Battelle continues to serve as the Executive Producer and Program Chair of the Web 2 Summit, as well as a partner with BoingBoing.net. Battelle also maintains Searchblog, an ongoing analysis site that covers the intersection of media, technology, and culture at www.battellemedia.com.

Previously, Battelle occupied the Bloomberg chair in Business Journalism for the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. He was Chairman and CEO of Standard Media International (SMI), publisher of The Industry Standard and TheStandard.com. Prior to that, he was a co-founding editor of Wired magazine and Wired Ventures.

In 2005 Battelle authored The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture (Penguin/Portfolio), an international bestseller published in more than 25 languages. He is at work on his second book, with the working title What We Hath Wrought: A History of the Internet’s Next 30 Years. He is an expert in the field of media and technology, and has appeared on many national and international news channels such as CBS, BBC, CNN, PBS, Discovery, CNBC, and dozens more.

Battelle was a founding Board member of the Online Publishers Association and currently sits on the board of the Interactive Advertising Bureau. He sits on various startup advisory boards and served for nearly a decade on the Board of his children’s school.

Battelle’s honors and awards include: “Global Leader for Tomorrow” and “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland; finalist rank in the “Entrepreneur of the Year” competition by Ernst & Young; “Innovator – One of Ten Best Marketers in the Business”by Advertising Age; and one of the “Most Important People on The Web” by PCWorld. Battelle holds a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and a master’s degrees in Journalism from the University of California, Berkeley.

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Vinod grew up dreaming of being an entrepreneur, despite growing up in an Indian Army household with no business or technology connections. Since the age of 16, when he first heard about Intel starting up, he dreamt of starting his own technology company. Upon graduating with a bachelor’s in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, Vinod failed, at age 20, to start a soy milk company to service the many people in India who did not have refrigerators. He came instead to the U.S. and got his master’s in biomedical engineering at Carnegie-Mellon University. His start-up dreams attracted him to Silicon Valley, where he got an MBA at Stanford University in 1980.

Upon graduation he was one of the three founders of Daisy Systems, which was the first significant computer-aided design system for electrical engineers. The company went on to achieve significant revenue, profits, and an IPO, but Khosla, driven by the frustration of having to design the computer hardware on which the Daisy software needed to be built, started the standards-based Sun Microsystems in 1982 to build workstations for software developers. At Sun he pioneered “open systems” and RISC processors. Sun was funded by longtime friend and board member John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

In 1986 Vinod switched sides and joined Kleiner Perkins, where he was and continues to be a general partner of KPCB funds through KP X. Through the years there, with other partners, he took on Intel’s monopoly with Nexgen/AMD (the only microprocessor to have significant success against Intel, sold to AMD for 28 percent of AMD), incubated the idea and business plan for Juniper to take on Cisco’s dominance of the router market, formulated the very early advertising-based search strategy for Excite, and transformed the moribund telecommunications business and its archaic SONET implementations with Cerent (sold to Cisco for $7B). He helped in creating value, having fun, succeeding, failing (remember Dynabook?), and driving impact in partnership with entrepreneurs and the partners at KPCB.

In 2004, Vinod, driven by the need for flexibility to accommodate four teenaged children and a desire to be more experimental, to fund sometimes imprudent “science experiments,” and to take on both for-profit and for “social impact” ventures, formed khoslaventures, funded entirely with family funds. His goals remain the same: work and learn from fun and knowledgeable entrepreneurs, build impactful companies through the leverage of innovation, and spend time in a partnership that makes a difference. Vinod has a passion for nascent technologies that can have a beneficial effect and economic impact on society. His greatest passion is being a mentor to entrepreneurs, helping them build technology-based businesses. Vinod serves on the boards of a few companies, but he generally meets directly with most of the portfolio companies as they face transitions or key decisions.

Khosla is a charter member of TiE, a not-for-profit global network of entrepreneurs and professionals founded in 1992 that now has more than forty chapters in nine countries. He is also a founding board member of the Indian School of Business. His current passion is social entrepreneurship, with a special emphasis on microfinance as a poverty alleviation tool. He is a supporter of many microfinance organizations in India and Africa. He has been experimenting with education and global housing. Vinod is also passionate about alternative energy, petroleum independence, and the environment.

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Mr. Albinson is a co-founder and Managing Director of Panorama where he focuses primarily on internet technology investments. Mr. Albinson was also a General Partner at JP Morgan Partners running the technology venture capital practice. Prior to JP Morgan Partners, Mr. Albinson helped grow four start ups most recently as Chief Strategy Officer for Digital Island, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISLD; acquired by Cable & Wireless, Inc. in 2001). Previously, Mr. Albinson held corporate development roles at Newbridge Networks, Inc. where he was involved in a $217 million corporate venture fund, which invested in 27 companies, including Juniper Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:JNPR), Cambrian Systems Corporation (acquired by Nortel Corporation), Abatis Systems Corporation (acquired by Redback Networks Inc.), Fastlane Technologies Inc. (acquired by Quest Software, Inc.), BNI Systems (acquired by Nortel Corporation), and PixStream Incorporated (acquired by Cisco Systems, Inc.). Mr. Albinson has been a speaker, panelist, and judge at Web 2.0 Summit, Next Generation Networks, Red Herring Top 100, Canada’s Top 10 Technology Start Ups, and the Gilder’s Telecosm conference.

Mr. Albinson holds a B.S. and an M.B.A. from the University of Western Ontario. He currently serves on the board of directors of Federated Media Publishing, BelAir Networks., Cedar Point Communications, and Eltek-Valere Power, Inc. Mr. Albinson is also on the advisory board of Partners for Growth, a venture lending firm backed by Silicon Valley Bank.

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Michael Goguen is a venture capitalist at Sequoia Capital focusing on cleantech, semiconductor and systems investments. Prior to joining Sequoia Capital in 1996, Michael spent 10 years in various engineering, research, and product management roles at DEC, SynOptics and Centillion, and was a director of Engineering at Bay Networks (NT). Michael was also a Technical Chairman of the ATM Forum. Michael has a BS in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University and an MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

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Todor leads Omidyar Network’s Financial Capital function, overseeing the process for making, managing, and evaluating investments. In addition, he leads the Consumer Internet & Mobile investment area, making investments that encourage people to express themselves, connect to others with shared interests, and take action on what matters to them. His portfolio includes Digg, Linden Lab, and Metaweb, among others. Todor serves as a board member for Common Sense Media and Meetup, a board advisor for O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, and a board observer for Federated Media Publishing and Socialtext.

Prior to joining Omidyar Network, Todor advised the founding team of LiveOps, a leader in the on-demand and virtual call center space, on a range of strategy and fundraising issues. At Tellme Networks, he developed and led the company’s mobile applications strategy, targeting the largest U.S. wireless carriers. Earlier, at JP Morgan, he worked on more than $200 million in private equity investments across a range of industries and investment stages. Todor has an MBA from the Harvard Business School, an MA in international economics from Carleton University, Canada, and an International Law degree (LLM) from the Moscow Institute of International Relations.

Patrick joined NEA in 2004 and became Partner in 2007. Patrick focuses on consumer, Internet and mobile investments across stage. He is a director of Loopt, Realtime Worlds, and GoodGuide, co-led NEA’s investment in 23andMe, and is actively involved with Nurien, Xoom and the firm’s venture growth activities. Prior to joining NEA, Patrick helped to grow ZEFER, an Internet services firm (acquired by NEC) to more than $100 million in annual revenues and more than 700 people across six global offices. Prior to ZEFER, Patrick was with McKinsey & Company, where he specialized in hardware, software, and services companies. Patrick received a joint JD-MBA degree from Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School, where he served as an Editor of the Harvard Law Review. Patrick was a Commonwealth Scholar at Oxford University, where he earned a Master of Science degree and won both class prizes for Best Dissertation and Best Overall Performance. Patrick earned his A.B. degree at Harvard University in Environmental Science. He is a member of the New York and Massachusetts bars, and a member of the Committee to Visit Harvard College.

Erik leads MDV’s cleantech investment team and appies his expertise in solar, biofuels, energy storage, industrial biotech and clean coal. His board seats include: Catilin, Energy Innovations, Gordon Murray Design, Nanosolar, OPX Biotechnology, Recurrent Energy and ZeaChem. Erik serves on the advisory boards of the Stanford Precourt Institute for Energy Efficiency, Stanford Technology Ventures Program, Stanford’s BASES, NVCA Cleantech Council, and Cleantech Venture Network. Erik earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Harvey Mudd College and doctoral and master’s degrees from Stanford.

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